November 6, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Let's take just a moment of quiet to prepare our hearts for worship.

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Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our

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God. Please stand. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down.

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Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our

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God. And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

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Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.

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Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.

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Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all people.

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For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods.

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For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord made the heavens.

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Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

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Come now, let us worship him. Please pray with me.

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are great and greatly to be praised.

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I pray that we would have both the appropriate reverential fear and awe and also the tender affection as a child would have for his father.

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Oh, Lord, we recognize that you are the creator and sustainer of all things.

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And honor and majesty are before you, and strength and beauty fill your sanctuary.

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We ask that our worship would be pleasing in your sight, and we have great confidence in this because of the merit of our

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Lord, the only mediator, Jesus Christ, and the effectual working power of your

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Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would fill this place and fill us, that we might sing your praises and behold your majesty and glory.

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We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.

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Let us confess our sins with one voice. Most holy and merciful

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Father, we confess to you and to one another that we have sinned against you by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

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We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not fully loved our neighbors as ourselves.

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We have not always had in us the mind of Christ. You alone know how often we have grieved you by wasting your gifts, by wandering from your ways.

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Forgive us, we pray, most merciful Father, and free us from our sins.

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Renew in us the grace and strength of your Holy Spirit, for the sake of Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Savior. Amen. Please stand. Who is a

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God like you? Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.

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He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy.

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He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities.

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He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. O people of God, give thanks and rejoice if you be in Christ.

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Your sins are forgiven. Amen. Please turn in the hymnal to number 34.

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The God of Abram prays. 34. So this is going to play.

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The son of Matan, the son of Melchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying,

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Thus says the Lord, he who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence.

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But he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live. His life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live.

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Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.

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Therefore the princes said to the king, Please let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them.

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For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm. Then Zedekiah the king said,

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Look, he is in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you. So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Melchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the prison.

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And they let Jeremiah down with ropes, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire.

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So Jeremiah sank in the mire. Now Ebed -Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put

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Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin, Ebed -Melech went out of the king's house and spoke to the king, saying,

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My lord, the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city.

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Then the king commanded Ebed -Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Take from here thirty men with you and lift

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Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies. So Ebed -Melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury and took from there old clothes and old rags and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

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Then Ebed -Melech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah, Please put these old clothes and rags under the ropes.

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And Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon.

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And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. Then Zedekiah, the king, sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the lord.

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And the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me. Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death?

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And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me. So Zedekiah, the king, swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying,

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As the Lord lives who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hands of these men who seek your life.

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Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel. If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live.

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This city shall not be burned with fire and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the

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Chaldeans. They shall burn it with fire and you shall not escape from their hand. And Zedekiah, the king, said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the

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Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hands and they abuse me. But Jeremiah said,

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Thus shall they shall not deliver you. Please obey the voice of the Lord, which I speak to you.

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So it shall be. So it shall be well with you and your soul shall live. But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the

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Lord has shown me. Now, behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon's princes.

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And those women shall say, Your close friends have set upon you and prevailed against you. Your feet have sunk in the mire and they have turned away again.

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So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon.

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And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire. Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no one know of these words and you shall not die.

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But if the princes hear that I have talked with you and they come to you and say to you, Declare to us now what you have said to the king and also what the king said to you.

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Do not hide it from us and we will not put you to death. Then you shall say to them, I presented my request before the king that he would not make me return to Jonathan's house to die there.

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Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded.

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So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been heard. Now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken, and he was there when

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Jerusalem was taken. The reading of the word. Thanks be to God. Let us now confess our common faith in the singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. Through this manner, therefore, pray ye.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

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Amen. Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do, as we live and work in the creation that displays his power, and be pleased to dispose all things to his own glory.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Father, we pray to you this morning as we come together before you in a special corporate worship.

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We ask that you would allow this day and this time that we have together to affect our weeks. Lord God, as we live and work our daily lives, that we would also consecrate those to you.

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Lord God, not in the same way, but in a way that acts as work is worship. Father, I pray that we would be different, that we would set an example for the world.

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That it's those who live with your truth and your light in us. Father, I pray that you would make us the members of Ascension Presbyterian Salt and Light in this world.

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Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, and the kingdom of grace advanced.

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Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it, and the kingdom of glory hastened.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Our Father, you will soon crush Satan under our feet, and you have defeated him.

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And we pray that the rock that has struck this earth, that is now growing into a kingdom, that is going to cover this whole earth, would continue to go forth in splendor and majesty.

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We pray, God, that you would keep us in it, that others would be brought into it, and that by your grace and for your glory, the glory of the

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Lord would cover this earth as the waters cover the sea. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins.

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And we are encouraged to ask this because, by his grace, we are able from the heart to forgive others.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Our Father, taking encouragement and prayer from you alone, in our prayers we praise you, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to you.

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And to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say together, Amen.

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Please stand. A moment we've been eagerly anticipating,

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Psalm 119. I'm going to echo DJ's admonitions to us in the recent weeks that confidence and boldness and wholeheartedness will go a long way for us to sing this psalm well to the glory of God.

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So I'm going to ask Alyssa, though it's familiar to us now, to play through it for us one time, if you don't mind, just to get us ready, and we're going to sing to the

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Lord. Thank you. We're here for the first time.

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We're visiting. I have not been here since I've been preaching in Zechariah. These messages are hard to separate from the material that goes before them, so they don't stand alone perfectly well.

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I hope to provide some help with that, but we are considering Zechariah 4 today, and I'm going to read chapter 4, and our focus will be on verses 8 through 14.

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I need to remind you that this is God's holy and infallible word.

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Zechariah chapter 4. Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me as a man who is wakened out of his sleep, and he said to me,

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What do you see? So I said, I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.

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Two olive trees are by it, one at the right hand of the bowl and the other at its left.

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So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?

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Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are?

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And I said, No, my lord. So he answered and said to me, This is the word of the

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Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the

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Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain before Zerubbabel?

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You shall become a plain, and he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it.

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Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple.

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His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

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For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

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They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.

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Then I answered and said to him, What are these two olive trees at the right of the lampstand and at its left?

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And I further answered and said to him, What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?

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And he answered me and said, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my

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Lord. So he said, These are the two anointed ones who stand beside the

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Lord of the whole earth. May the Lord be pleased with our study and the prophet

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Zechariah. Please pray with me. Righteous Father, we pray that we would see more of the glory of Christ.

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The powerful working of your Holy Spirit. We ask these things in Jesus name.

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Amen. Please be seated. The title of the message today is the day of small things.

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The day of small things. I have two points of reference for you to consider to organize your notes.

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As usual, I lack creativity. First, Zerubbabel's work will be completed from chapter from verse nine.

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Zerubbabel's work will be completed. The first point.

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Second, the question as written in verse ten for who has despised the day of small things.

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That will be the second point, though not formally.

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The third point would be application. So two points plus application for today's message.

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The day of small things. The Lord is building his kingdom.

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The exiles have returned and the temple, the city, the nation is being rebuilt.

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As we see in verse nine, Zerubbabel's work will be completed. His hands that have laid the foundation of the temple.

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These hands will also finish it. There is this timeless prophetic formula with this promise and its realization and fulfillment.

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It says at the end of verse nine, we see that the Lord of hosts, you'll know it.

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He has sent me to you. Remember, the two key figures in Zechariah are

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Joshua and Zerubbabel. Joshua, the cleansed and consecrated high priest and Zerubbabel, the son of David.

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How powerful, how impactful that a son of David after the exile is governor in Judea.

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As we've learned through our study of Zechariah, these two are types of Christ.

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Joshua, a type of Christ high priesthood. Zerubbabel, a type of Christ kingship.

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Zerubbabel has been tasked with building the temple. The foundations have been laid.

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The work continues and we have a promise here. It will be accomplished.

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His hands shall also finish it. The Lord of hosts, you're going to know it because these things are going to come to past.

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He has sent me to you. Now, friends,

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I want to remind you of how a simple and obscure book like Zechariah.

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It should be obscure, but we have to acknowledge it is. I believe that Zechariah is no less a book from the word of God for the people of God, of the

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New Covenant and the Gospels or any of Paul's letters. We are reading and studying the gospel according to Zechariah.

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Well, how so? Well, in this Joshua typology, which preceded this chapter in chapter three, we see that Christ has come as the great high priest over the house of God.

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In Zechariah, we learned that Joshua, bearing the same name as Jesus, fulfilling this role as the high priest, he had to be cleansed in order to officiate at the altar.

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But our Christ has no need of cleansing. He is perfectly righteous.

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He has come as that perfect mediator. He alone possesses both natures of God and man in one person.

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No one could be more qualified than Christ to be the great high priest of his people.

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And Joshua teaches us one of the facets, maybe several of the facets, which we'll learn in its reality in Christ or what a high priest ought to be.

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This Christ, the greatest prophet, is the word incarnate.

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The thus saith the Lord prophetic formulation is heightened to extraordinary places.

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When the word of the Lord himself, the word Christ, God in the flesh, he comes and he speaks all truth as our prophet, priest and king.

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I'm going to have a couple of page turns today. Please go to Hebrews chapter one.

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I want to remind you of this. Hebrews chapter one, beginning at verse one.

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God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets like Zechariah, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.

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This is extraordinary Christology, divinity of Christ, the agent of creation, astounding information about Christ.

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Who, it says in verse three, being the brightness of his glory and express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power.

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This is our high priest. When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels.

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As he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

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For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

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And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

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When he brings again the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him.

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And of the angels, he says, who makes his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire.

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But to the son, he says, your throne, oh,

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God, is forever and ever. God, the father speaks to God, the son, and says, your throne, oh,

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God, is forever and ever. David's throne, an earthly throne, is united to a heavenly throne.

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And there's going to be a couple times today. We're going to see that that heaven comes down.

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God comes down and man is lifted up. And this is all possible because of the person and work of Christ.

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What kind of scepter does he have? He has a scepter of righteousness. This is the scepter of his kingdom.

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Referring to Jesus again, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

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And therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

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And how can he say it? Can you imagine to the Hebrew believers?

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Just hearing this and having this expounded for the first time. Referring to the man,

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Jesus, whom they knew possibly, who they may have seen in the streets. Covenant name of God, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth.

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And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain.

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They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will fold them up and they will be changed.

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But you are the same and your ears will not fail. To which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand and make your enemies your footstool?

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Now let's turn back to Zechariah and maybe ask, why did I quote

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Hebrews 1 here? Christ has taken his rightful place on David's and heaven's throne.

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As Zerubbabel was charged with building a temple, so too,

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Christ is charged with building the everlasting temple of God. A temple not made with hands.

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And I will argue, a temple made up of his body, the church.

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And just as the divine and the human are united in Christ, so too the heavenly sanctuary and the living stones temple, which is in the church, will unite as the one dwelling place of God in the spirit.

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Heaven has come down and redeemed man has been lifted up.

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Heaven has come down to earth in Christ. And redeemed man has been lifted up with him and his resurrection and ascension.

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It's powerful, lofty language. Let's turn to John chapter 2. I meant to have you stop there.

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I'm sorry. John chapter 2. We're in the temple rebuilding phase, post exile in Jerusalem.

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This is very important for the people to have a place where they can come and commune with God.

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They need a priesthood. And that's why we have Joshua. That spectacular description in chapter 3 of Zechariah being cleansed and the whole priestly class being cleansed to fulfill this very important purpose.

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John chapter 2. I'm going to begin reading in verse 13. The Passover of the

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Jews was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

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And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and money changers doing business.

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When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple and with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the money changers money.

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Overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away.

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Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. And his disciples remember that it was written zeal for your house has eaten me up.

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So the Jews answered and said to him, what sign do you show to us since you do these things?

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Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple. And in three days

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I will raise it up. Then the Jews said it has taken 46 years to build this temple.

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And will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

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Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remember that he had said this to them.

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And they believe the scripture and the word which Jesus said. Remember the context of Zechariah temple reconstruction and the renovation and transformation of the hearts of the people.

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Solomon's temple would be raised. The second temple is being built in our context in Zechariah.

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The 46 year reference is the renovations that are taking place in the era of Jesus to to return it to a former

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Solomon like glory. By this time, the

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Ark of the Covenant had been long removed from the temple of God. That that tangible expression of the presence of God was not in the temple.

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And here we have the second occasion once when Jesus was 12 years old going to the temple.

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Now, in John two, we have scriptural reference to the presence of God being in the temple, not a an image, a type, a shadow.

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The very presence of God has come into the temple in the person of Jesus Christ.

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This is an extraordinary moment in history. And they question him.

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They ask him, what sign will you give? And he says, tear down this temple and in three days

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I will raise it up. The temple's purpose communion with God is realized here in John two in a very profound way.

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We have to remember that that tangible expression of God's presence, the the

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Ark of the Covenant, it's gone. But now

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God himself walks into the temple. He stands there and he begins to purge it from evil.

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The temple of his body will be destroyed when he would be risen from the dead.

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His disciples remember that he had said this to them and they believed the scripture.

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And the word which Jesus had said. You remember very famously in Galatians two that Paul says,

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I have been crucified with Christ. So I want you to work with me here.

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The living stones temple of which we are apart.

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The true dwelling place of God in the spirit. The church itself was crucified with Christ.

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So to now she has been raised with Christ. This is this is very compelling.

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Temples have to be destroyed and rebuilt. Solomon's temple is destroyed.

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It's being rebuilt in Jerusalem. The temple that Jesus walks into is going to be destroyed in 80 70.

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It's never been rebuilt. Jesus, the dwelling place of God in a person has so united himself to the church and so become one with them that we could say the church of God, the temple of God was crucified with Christ on the cross, never subject to death again, never subject to destruction again.

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The temple is Christ. His body, the church is the body of Christ.

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I mean, this makes your head spin when you consider that the temple that Christ builds is his bride.

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The temple that will last forever is the church. The temple has to be rebuilt in Zechariah so that we understand

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Christ's relationship to the church. That he might hundreds of years later.

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Bring the presence of God back to the temple. And his own person.

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Christ has finished the redemptive work at the cross.

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Yet the temple building and renovation project continues. What's happening in Zechariah is happening here.

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It's happening now. He's adding. He's building.

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He's bringing in new converts. New stones are being placed into the dwelling place of God.

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He's renovating. For greater glory, his temple.

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As the master craftsman, he he uses his hammer and his chisel and he he chips away the imperfections and makes the stones fit together in a more perfect unity.

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His righteousness and the power of his spirit.

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He burns away the dross. The corruption that the pure substance of our righteous faith would remain.

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It says in verse nine of Zechariah four. Then you will know that the

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Lord of hosts has sent me to you. Now we know.

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God, who in times past spoken by the prophets. Has in these last days spoken to us by his son.

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Zerubbabel will finish the work. The temple in Jerusalem will be built. And Christ also will finish his work.

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His temple construction and renovation project will be completed to perfection.

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Solomon's temple, the second temple. The renovated second temple, which becomes

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Harrod's temple. None of them can say that. None of them last. The test of time and understood the test of time.

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But this temple that Christ has built in his building. Continues to flourish.

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Back to our context. We have left from the surface of the earth in one sense.

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And we've gone into space and we've looked at these huge realities of Christ being the high priest and their true king and building a true temple.

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Now we zoom back down to contemporary Zechariah. And see what more we have to learn.

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Look at verse 10. Who has despised the day of small things?

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What you may not remember. I talked about this in the earliest two messages of Zechariah.

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But there were people who had actually seen Solomon's temple who were still alive.

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They're old people. And when the temple, the second temple is being built by Zerubbabel.

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Joshua's officiating there. They looked upon the second temple and they saw that its grandeur, its majesty, its glory did not compare to Solomon's temple.

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The source of discouragement for them. Our hearts rejoice when we contemplate the great work of Christ.

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We talked about that this morning in Sunday school. What he's done for our salvation.

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And it energizes us in some ways to know we think about a temple renovation project that he's not finished working on his church.

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He's purifying us. He's sanctifying us. He's causing us to grow in righteousness.

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We are going to come to the unity of the faith. All of the promises in him are yes and amen.

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They will be accomplished. Encourage us to remember that he's begun a good work in us.

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He's going to bring it to completion in our sanctification and glorification. But we ask the same question that the 50 ,000 or so returning exiles ask.

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But what about now? We know that the future is bright. The end of the story,

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Jesus wins. Colossal victory of our God and King. We know the ending.

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We know how it ends. But what about now? What about in this intermediate period?

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We know the future is bright. But our present circumstances seem somewhat insignificant and small.

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Our progress in the faith, we're soaring. We're talking about building the kingdom of God. We're talking about Christ and him being united with the church.

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And the church being the true temple of God. And we're flying high. We struggle to read our

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Bibles and to pray and do ordinary things, Christian things and simple obedience. Our progress seems feeble.

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The temple project in Zechariah with all its lofty expectations will not satisfy the people.

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Those aged among them who had seen, experienced the glory and grandeur of Solomon's temple viewed the second temple as disappointing, smaller, less grand, not as glorious.

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The people had experienced a great deliverance. They had been set free from Babylonian activity.

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They're going to rebuild the ruins. They're going to build Jerusalem and the temple and Judea Make it into what it was once again.

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Every man under his own vine and fig tree, right? But the harvest has been slow to come.

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Bugs and birds are eating the grapes in the vineyard. The fig tree takes years to bear fruit.

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So often. The beginnings are humble. Slow. And small.

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You're out there and you're going to build a solid Christian family. The knowledge of the

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Lord, remember, is going to fill the earth through them. But your devotional life is languishing.

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You want to venture out to do great things for God. But your zeal is stifled by your own disobedience and coldness.

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The people in Zechariah's time and our own find it hard to see the realization of the promises.

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This temple isn't as good as the former. They might say, look at the thorns in my fields.

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My lambs are sick. We have another paltry harvest.

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Zechariah, you have grand visions, but they seem to fall flat. We know there's hope for the future, but we want blessing now.

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And doesn't there something in us that say that? We know it's going to be great, but I want the blessings now.

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I want more fruit in my life than your life in this church. I want more fruit in the church at large.

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I want it now. There's hope for the future.

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We know the ending. We want blessing now. We want to make more progress in our sanctification.

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But we find ourselves spiritually lethargic at times. Do not despise the day of small things.

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I wouldn't be surprised at all knowing how the Lord works. That today may be the beginning of the most fruitful season of your lives.

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Don't despise the small things. The second half of verse 10. For the all -seeing, omniscient eyes of the

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Lord rejoice to see Zerubbabel measuring the breadth and width and length of Jerusalem.

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His building project is both human and divine. He labors and toils and no doubt has failures and setbacks.

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But God is at work, and this temple is going to be rebuilt because we need Jesus to walk into that temple in John chapter 2.

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And we need that temple to be destroyed in A .D. 70 for the church to understand that the temple of God, the dwelling place of God in the

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Spirit, are those who are united to Christ in His body. The church, the living stones, temple of God that can never fail, can never be destroyed.

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So the events of history are happening in Zechariah. The people are suspect. The seven referring to this great omniscience of God.

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God rejoices. His ministering spirits rejoice to see the palm line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

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They are the eyes of the Lord which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.

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Hundreds of thousands of people have not yet left Babylon, and they're going to come back.

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The eyes of the Lord see it. There's going to be a great ingathering in Jerusalem, in Judea, of the people of God who have been displaced by this captivity of Babylon.

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But how much grander is the eyes of the Lord, the omniscient, all -knowing, all -seeing mind of God, which scans to and fro to the four corners of the entire earth and looks into the future, and he sees the temple of God being built with members from every tongue, tribe, and nation.

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The day of small things was Zerubbabel and Joshua and Zechariah of the start of some big things in redemptive history, consummating and the salvation going to the ends of the earth in Christ.

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So this building project, as humble as it is, is both human and divine.

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God is at work. The eternal temple is being built.

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The kingdom of Christ marches on. To remind you of a few things, after the fall, it looked desperate.

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There was a promise of a holy seed of the woman, which is an incredible statement, because women don't have seed, referring to,

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I think, virgin birth, miraculousness, and all those things. The seed of the woman is

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Christ. That takes thousands of years to come to pass.

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Abraham was as good as dead, but God's promised son would come in his last years,

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Isaac, the son of promise. These things take years to build.

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Jacob had to labor for years to get Rachel, but he's tricked and he gets

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Leah. He labors for more years until he can finally get Rachel.

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It took him 14 years at least to get his bride, Rachel. Jacob's family is starving because of famine.

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His betrayed son, Joseph, would be their salvation. He languished in prison, falsely accused, but God raised him up for this purpose.

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The betrayed son, Joseph, becomes the salvation of the 70 persons of Israel.

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Jacob's family goes down to Egypt with 70 persons, and it takes 433 years of hardship, discouragement, but God miraculously delivers them in the

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Exodus. They're delivered, and it looks like they're going to go right into the promised land, but their sinfulness causes them to be wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

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These things take a long time, and then they go into the promised land. They get to the promised land.

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It's a great thing. Oh, there's more trouble. As the years go on, all the wars, all the strife, the unrighteous kings, the nation is plunged into Assyrian captivity, and the southern kingdom to Babylonian captivity, and some of these people have experienced it.

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That's 70 years. They're taken into captivity. It takes them 70 years to get back home, but here they are in Jerusalem.

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The temple is being rebuilt. The vines are growing.

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The fig tree is starting to blossom with fruit. It's a day of small things, but the small things are not to be despised.

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Work your fields, then build your house. Take a wife, love and cherish her.

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Feast at your table, enjoying the labor and the fruit of your hands. Watch the full quiver of olive shoots growing into maturity.

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Labor to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Small things turn into big things.

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There was a poor woman and a poor betrothed husband who find themselves, find

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Mary to be pregnant. She is a peasant. She is an insignificant person living in the

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Roman Empire, and she goes to what had become one of the most insignificant towns in the region,

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Bethlehem, the city of David, and that's where a seemingly insignificant

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Jewish baby was born. At the time of Jesus, there were at least 17 false messiahs.

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Pontius Pilate is going to put another rebel rouser to death on the cross. He's one of many, right?

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He's an insignificant, small, lowercase king, he might say. Heaven and earth collide.

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Heaven has come down. Heaven has been clothed in flesh, the flesh of Christ.

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Small things turn to big things. Faithfulness and perseverance in the ordinary

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Christian life has implications for generations to come.

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Labor and faith knowing the Lord is building

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His house. Now, here's the part that's really amazing.

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We think about this in these lofty terms, this cosmic temple -making, temple made without hands, heavenly kingdom, all of these things.

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It comes all the way back down to earth and very close. You, the people of God, are the individual stones which make up the glorious temple.

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You are an integral part of God's building. More on that in just a moment.

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The question finally has to be asked. Zechariah asked the question of the angel who talked with him.

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Verse 11, it says, Then I answered and said to him, What are these two olive trees at the right of the lampstand and at its left?

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And I further answered and said to him, What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?

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Then he answered and said, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my Lord. So he said,

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These are the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.

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Now, being here two weeks ago would have been very helpful for you if you were not here. We identified the oil as the

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Holy Spirit. The question is asked, What are these two or who are these two olive trees?

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There's a lampstand here that shines the light of God's revelation. And we realized last time that it was

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Christ in the church. And it's the the oil is the Holy Spirit that that makes this possible.

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It's the first half of chapter four. Well, there's two answers.

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The most obvious answer is the two olive trees are

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Joshua and Zerubbabel. These are God's appointed servants to carry out this kingdom building work that's being accomplished in Zechariah.

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The people need to submit to their leadership. They are God's appointed vessels of blessing.

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They've been consecrated for this purpose. They've been cleansed and purified. They're going to go work. This is going to require the work of the people.

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They need to submit to these earthly leaders. But I also have to think the way

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I've been preaching Zechariah, the way I've been interpreting this, this Christological and bigger focus.

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I have to think because it's contextually there. Zerubbabel, Joshua, obviously types of Christ.

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We can see the oil, the power of the spirit. I think there's some Trinitarianism here.

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I think the two are also Christ and the Holy Spirit. There's a bigger thing at play.

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It really is about Joshua and Zerubbabel. But there are two who stand beside the

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Lord of the whole earth, and that's Christ and that's the Holy Spirit. They stand in the presence of the

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Father and labor to bring all of these things to pass.

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Remember, they've been engaged in a very big temple building project for a long time now.

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They've been gathering in the people of God into Christ. Well, time is gone, so let's move to application.

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God in times past, as we learned in the beginning, has spoken to the prophets like Zechariah, but he has now in these last days spoken to us by his son.

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We know that the Lord has brought all of this about and continues to do so.

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I want to bring to remembrance that phrase in verse nine. Then you will know that the

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Lord of hosts has sent me to you. God has sent his son to fulfill all righteousness and to clothe us in it.

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He has sent his spirit to indwell, guide, sustain, and empower us for kingdom service.

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He has sent to his church his holy word, a complete, authoritative, sufficient, inerrant, and infallible word to supply that all we need for this life to pursue godliness.

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And it seems that the Lord is pleased in this lampstand imagery to allow his light and his heat to be dispersed through the mechanism of the proclamation faithfully of his word.

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The Holy Spirit, this is where the powerful locomotive train of the Holy Spirit runs.

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It runs through the scripture and the proclamation of it. He's also given his church and her officers, think about Ephesians 4, to be the sharp instruments of his building project.

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He builds the kingdom and the temple house through them.

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Like Zerubbabel and Joshua, they are the anointed ones. The Holy Spirit burns through them, setting off all of this light and heat.

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He does it through his church and her officers. Number two, very simply, the second point, do not despise the day of small things.

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You're not where you want to be, probably. You'd like to be further along in your progress.

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But time and time again, the Bible record demonstrates that he builds very big and wonderful things from humble beginnings.

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The nation that would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth was the smallest and most insignificant nation on the earth.

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That's how God does things. That's his plan. That's how he operates. And third, we've been talking about time.

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This kingdom work takes time. But we also must redeem the time for the days are evil.

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You have already wasted way too much of your life on sin and its consequences.

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Think how much time you've wasted on sin and the cleanup afterwards, how much time has been wasted.

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Today, repent of every known sin. Put on the new man that has been crucified and raised with Christ.

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Engage fully in the Christian life, that you're in the spiritual disciplines, that your hunger and thirst for righteousness could never be quenched.

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Pray for the Holy Spirit to both use you and sustain you to this noble end.

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This church is small. It's mocked by the reform community around us, not to our face.

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They're scared. Do it behind your back. The Lord is going to use

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Ascension Presbyterian for great things, if not in our lifetime and the lifetimes to come.

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We believe we do not despise the day of small beginnings. Let's pray together.

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Oh, Lord, we thank you for Zechariah.

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We thank you for history that involves Temple rebuilding and.

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Priests in need of cleansing and sons of David ascending to governorships. Lord, that all of these things draw us into this redemptive story and reveal more and more of Christ to us.

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Lord, we ask that we would have a grander vision for our life through the ordinary things, the lives that are transformed by the simple proclamation of your gospel.

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Lord, we could be changing generations by leading people to Christ. And Lord, our our faithfulness to disciple and raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the

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Lord. Oh, Lord, we do pray with our off quoted prayer in the liturgy that the the knowledge of the earth

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Lord would fill the earth through them. Oh, Lord, make it so. And, oh,

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Lord, we pray and we ask that you would be kind to us. That you would show us some of the fruit, some of the blessings now.

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But we will not be discontent and we will be thankful if these promises are all for us yet future.

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Oh, Lord, we know better today not to despise the day of small things.

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We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's continue our worship through the presentation of tithes and offerings.

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Please stand. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for the work you have given us to do.

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We thank you for the privilege it is to serve and give to the church. We pray that these tithes and offerings would be used to build your kingdom through the faithful proclamation of your gospel and every good kingdom work.

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We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. And we have reason to rejoice and give thanks.

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We have cause to give glory to God. Let's do so heartily in the singing of the glory of pottery.

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Thanks to the

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Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you.

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Oh, Holy Lord, Father, almighty, everlasting God, because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.

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That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels, with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.

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These things as ordinary things, a small thing. Lord, we know in faith these are grand and lofty things.

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I pray that our communion today would be filled with joy and thanksgiving because we have been united to Christ and thereby united to one another.

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And that in this mysterious, glorious way, we eat bread that is really bread and drink wine that is really wine.

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And we somehow eat the body of Christ and drink his blood.

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And we are assimilated into him and we take him and he is assimilated into us.

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Oh, Lord, we thank you for these glorious things. We give thanks in Jesus name.

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Amen. Our Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, gave it thanksgiving, and gave it to his disciples, saying,

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Take, eat, this is my body. Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying,

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This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Drink from it, all of you, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he dies. Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ is risen.

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Christ will come again. Let's humbly make this prayer together as we approach the table.

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We do not presume to come to this short table, O merciful

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Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, a gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear

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Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us.

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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feasts, the gifts of God, for you, the people of God.

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Thanks be to the Lord. Show me the truth unsealed, living thy word.

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Feast at his table. Let's make this commitment sincerely and earnestly together.

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Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your

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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your

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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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Now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit be honor and glory now and forever.